Next story in Asia-Pacific

Video: Obama: ‘Flickers of progress’ in Myanmar

Transcript of: Obama: ‘Flickers of progress’ in Myanmar

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:Overseas tonight,
President Obama
made big news today on his tour of the
Asian Pacific
region, with an announcement about Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton
. Our chief White House correspondent
Chuck Todd
had a chance to speak with Secretary
Clinton
earlier today. Tonight he is traveling with the president.

CHUCK TODD reporting:The president showed up in the vivid colors of a traditional
Balinese
shirt for the official photo with Asian leaders. Mr.
Obama
has tried to keep the focus on the jobs crisis back home, today joining officials from
Boeing
to tout the sale of 230 US-made aircraft to an Indonesian airline.

President BARACK OBAMA:Our workers back home are going to be able to have job security and be able to produce an outstanding product made in
America
.

TODD:And in a major foreign policy announcement, the president said his administration will renew diplomatic conversations with the isolated government of
Myanmar
, formerly
Burma
.

Pres. OBAMA:After years of darkness, we've seen flickers of progress in these last several weeks.

TODD:Hillary Clinton
will visit the
country
next month, the
first secretary of state
to go there in more than 50 years. In an interview with
NBC News
, she says the
country
must do more for a full restoration of relations.

Secretary HILLARY CLINTON:They have to release all political prisoners. I mean, that just is a condition. They have to have a real electoral system with an open door to political parties and free expression.

TODD:On
Syria
, another
country
with a fledgling democratic movement,
Clinton
was blunt in her assessment of the growing violence.

Sec. CLINTON:Yes, I think there could be a civil war with a very determined and well-armed and eventually well-financed opposition.

TODD:She all but ruled out a
Libya
-like solution with a Western coalition to help out in the fight.

Sec. CLINTON:There is no appetite for that kind of action vis-a-vis
Syria
.
Libya
was a -- was a unique situation.

TODD:As for her daughter's new career here at
NBC News
. I got to ask about my new colleague.

Sec. CLINTON:Yes. Yes.

TODD:What did you think when she said, 'I want to become a member of the fourth estate, this side of the line here?

Sec. CLINTON:Well, I was -- I was a little surprised. But, you know, she decided to go for it and I'm very excited for her.

TODD:The president heads to
Guam
after the summit and returns to
Washington
on Sunday.
Chuck Todd
,
NBC
News, Bali.

BALI, Indonesia — Detecting "flickers of progress" in the long shunned and sanctioned nation of Myanmar, President Barack Obama announced Friday that he will send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the repressed country next month, the first official in her position to visit in more than 50 years.

"We want to seize what could be an historic opportunity for progress and make it clear that if Burma continues to travel down the road of democratic reform, it can forge a new relationship with the United States of America," Obama said Friday during his diplomatic mission to southeast Asia.

In exploring a breakthrough engagement with Myanmar, also known as Burma, the president first sought assurances of support from democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

She spent 15 years on house arrest by the nation's former military dictators, but is now in talks with the new civilian government about reforming the country.

Dire human rights conditions
Obama said that the current environment is a rare opening that could help millions of people "and that possibility is too important to ignore."

"The visit clearly demonstrates that United States is stepping up its engagement policy," said Aung Thein, a prominent lawyer and a member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

"It is better to see Myanmar's political situation on the ground rather than watch from a distance, We welcome the visit," he added.

The administration sees Clinton's visit as a sign of success for Obama's policy on Myanmar, which was outlined in 2009 and focused on punishments and incentives to get the country's former military rulers to improve dire human rights conditions.

The U.S. imposed new sanctions on Myanmar but made clear it was open to better relations if the situation changed.

Now Myanmar's nominally civilian government, which took power in March, has declared its intention to liberalize the hard-line policies of the junta that preceded it.

It has taken some fledgling steps, such as easing censorship, legalizing labor unions, suspending an unpopular, China-backed dam project and working with Suu Kyi.

It also came as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations decided that Myanmar would chair the regional bloc in 2014, a significant perch that Myanmar was forced to skip in 2006 because of intense criticism of its rights record.

A U.S. opening with Myanmar would also contribute to Obama's rebalancing goals, as Burma's military leaders for long had close ties to China.

Beijing has poured billions of dollars of investment into Myanmar to operate mines, extract timber and build oil and gas pipelines. China has also been a staunch supporter of the country's politically isolated government and is Myanmar's second-biggest trading partner after Thailand.

Senior administration officials, briefing reporters Friday, stressed that the new engagement with Myanmar was not about China.

They said the Obama administration consulted with China about the move and said they expected China to be supportive. They argued that China in fact wants to see a stable Burma on its borders, so that it doesn't risk problems with refugees or other results of political instability.

When he took office in 2009, Obama made reaching out to American adversaries a signature part of his foreign policy approach. That included an effort early to engage with Iran.

'Speak very clearly'
Human rights groups welcomed Obama's announcement as an opportunity to compel further reforms.

"We've been arguing a long time that political engagement and political pressure are not mutually exclusive," Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Southeast Asia researcher, told The Associated Press, adding that Clinton "should not miss the opportunity in this historic visit to pressure the government and speak very clearly that the human rights violations taking place there need to stop."

Elaine Pearson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the Burmese government must realize that a visit by Clinton "puts them on notice, not lets them off the hook for their continually atrocious human rights record."

Myanmar, a former breadbasket of Southeast Asia, has suffered not just repressive government but poor economic management during nearly 50 years of military rule.

It is subject to wide-ranging trade, economic and political sanctions from the U.S. and other Western nations, enforced in response to brutal crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters in 1988 and 2007 and its refusal to hand power to pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi's party after the 1990 elections.

Obama will see Myanmar's president during a summit of Southeast Asian nations. The two have met before, at an ASEAN meeting in Singapore, when Thein Sein was prime minister.

The announcement was the capstone to a day of diplomatic meetings on the sidelines of summits with Asian leaders, including India, Malaysia and the Philippines. Administration officials said Obama raised the issue of Myanmar in his meetings with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. Officials said they expected ASEAN members to be supportive.

Earlier, in a move promoting American trade, Obama presided over a deal that will send Boeing planes to an Indonesian company and create jobs back home, underscoring the value of the lucrative Asia-Pacific market to a president needing some good economic news.

Huge Boeing order
Obama stood watch as executives of Boeing and Lion Air, a private carrier in Indonesia, signed a deal that amounts to Boeing's largest commercial plane order. Lion Air ordered 230 airplanes, and the White House said it would support tens of thousands of jobs in the U.S.

The White House is determined to show that American leadership here, far from home, is wanted after a decade in which wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominated attention.

Meanwhile, Myanmar's main opposition party also decided Friday to rejoin politics and register for future elections, signaling its confidence in recent reforms by the military-aligned government.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party "has unanimously decided to re-register as a political party ... and will run in the elections," according to a party statement issued at the end of a meeting of senior members from all across the country.